sad news. kid with yearbook photo with cat and laser beams committed suicide [View all]

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Suicide-claims-shining-student-6093034.php

imes-Union) — Draven Rodriguez, a quick-witted senior at Schenectady High School who made national news last fall when a proposed yearbook portrait of him with his cat against a background of laser beams went viral online, died Thursday at home. He was 17. The cause was suicide, his parents said.
Although his humor and intelligence were readily apparent, Rodriguez was more cherished by family and schoolmates for his easy facility for friendship.
"He made friends wherever he went," said Rodriguez's father, Jonathan Stewart. "He had friends all over the country — people he'd met at youth-leadership conferences, online, just around town."


Among those was Reza Zand, co-owner of the Schenectady restaurant Persian Bite, which Rodriguez frequented partly for the food and partly to talk to Zand and his brother, Arousol, whose stories as emigres from Iran intrigued him.